Tuesday, November 27, 2007
The NHL vs. The Internet
The Jiri Tlusty naked photo mess has highlighted just how damaging the Internet can be to a player's reputation when the players aren't careful about their activities. Like it or not, there are those who want to take advantage of an athlete's name and use it for nefarious purposes.
As Chuck Gormley of The Sporting News reports, the NHL wants to make its players aware of a world that many of them know little about. Unbeknownst to many players, they are posers pretending to be an NHL player, and often getting away with it.
I've seen a few such sites, and they range from harmless 'role playing' (a game where people make no bones about playing the role of a player, and disclose that they are not the actual athlete) to actual identity theft, where many are duped into believing that Jason Smith actually spends six hours a day on his Facebook account.
Unfortunately, it will take a combined effort between the NHL and its clubs to ensure that their athletes are protected.
My solution would be for each club to have one of its employees act as an IT watchdog for their players. Between the clubs and the NHL, these people would scour the internet, ensuring that any MySpace-like accounts are legitimate, and make sure that any false accounts are deleted. It's so incredibly simple for someone to set up an account and pretend that they are an athlete, and an amazing amount of people seem to fall for it.
Since ye olde newspapers are hardly the force they used to be, teams need to focus more of their energy on the media that most fans use, which is definitely the Internet. What goes on TV and Newspapers can more easily be controlled, but the Internet allows fans to get around any controls the NHL has in place for the more established channels.
For the new breed of athlete that does use the Internet often (such as Tlusty), they'll need to be protected from their own stupidity and/or gregariousness as anything that they allow to be exposed will spread around the hockeysphere faster than the Ebola virus.
As Chuck Gormley of The Sporting News reports, the NHL wants to make its players aware of a world that many of them know little about. Unbeknownst to many players, they are posers pretending to be an NHL player, and often getting away with it.
"Go on MySpace and type in anybody in this (locker) room and there will be someone posing," said Carter, who is single. "I have a friend who said she sent pictures to my MySpace and I don't even have a MySpace. She said, 'Oh, I've been talking to you for the past month and a half.'"
Umberger, who is married, went online and discovered there were four people posing as him on their own web pages. When he found that some were soliciting women, he had all four accounts canceled.
I've seen a few such sites, and they range from harmless 'role playing' (a game where people make no bones about playing the role of a player, and disclose that they are not the actual athlete) to actual identity theft, where many are duped into believing that Jason Smith actually spends six hours a day on his Facebook account.
Unfortunately, it will take a combined effort between the NHL and its clubs to ensure that their athletes are protected.
My solution would be for each club to have one of its employees act as an IT watchdog for their players. Between the clubs and the NHL, these people would scour the internet, ensuring that any MySpace-like accounts are legitimate, and make sure that any false accounts are deleted. It's so incredibly simple for someone to set up an account and pretend that they are an athlete, and an amazing amount of people seem to fall for it.
Since ye olde newspapers are hardly the force they used to be, teams need to focus more of their energy on the media that most fans use, which is definitely the Internet. What goes on TV and Newspapers can more easily be controlled, but the Internet allows fans to get around any controls the NHL has in place for the more established channels.
For the new breed of athlete that does use the Internet often (such as Tlusty), they'll need to be protected from their own stupidity and/or gregariousness as anything that they allow to be exposed will spread around the hockeysphere faster than the Ebola virus.
Labels: Blogging community, Facebook, internet, media, MySpace, NHL, RJ Umberger
Tuesday, August 07, 2007
Bloggers Poll #1: The Worst Free Agent Signing This Off-Season
by Jes
On a lark, I decided to poll a few of my fellow hockey bloggers with a selected question. This could become a regular feature, since it offers the chance to get a spectrum of views in a nice capsulated format.
The first question: What was the worst free agent signing of the NHL off-season?
The one with the most answers with mighty-mite Daniel Briere, for which the Flyers were panned heavily for giving out such a long-term deal to a shrimp.
Mike Chen:
I'm going with Daniel Briere. Who the hell gets an EIGHT-YEAR term not named Crosby or Ovechkin? (Jes: Rick DiPietro) Couple it with the fact that the Flyers don't play Buffalo's go-go-go system, nor do they have the same offensive depth as the Sabres, and you're looking at a marked point drop and a bad cap hit for years to come. I could be wrong, but I see Briere's skills tapering off around year four of his deal.
Snoopyjode, from The Sidney Crosby Show:
BY FAR, my choice is the Daniel Briere signing. The Flyers basically bet the entire ranch on him. He's a somewhat decent and reliable player, but he's only had one really notable "standout" season in the NHL, so he's not even close to being worth what he got in that deal.
AND, Earl Sleek from the Battle of California:
In my opinion, the worst free agent signing this offseason was Philly's signing of Daniel Briere. I don't watch a ton of eastern conference hockey, but looking at the dollars and years committed, I think he's a guy who's very likely to underperform over the life of the contract.
Ritch Duncan, the American Hockey Fan (yes, the only one), had a very unique choice: Kevin Garnett to the Boston Celtics.
OK, how is a basketball trade the worst move of the hockey off-season? I'll tell ya. If there was one consolation for Bruins fans living in a town dominated by the Sox and Patriots, we could argue that with the Celtics around, the B's weren't the most pathetic team in town. It wouldn't have been a strong argument, but one could make it. Now, thanks to Mr. Garnett ( who has 2 inches on Zdeno Chara, by the way), the Boston Bruins are the least interesting sports draw in New England.
My fellow FanHouse cohort, Greg Wyshynski, wasn't too excited about the Habs paying heavily for a 2nd line defenseman.
Roman Hamrlik, four-year, $22-million deal with Montreal. He nearly had Mark Streit's stats, and now he has Sheldon Souray's money.
Michael the Hockey Fanatic chastised Kevin Lowe for his crazy RFA bids. I have to disagree about the 'playing nice' part, however. Hockey is war, on and off the ice ...
"I think the Vanek/Penner signing was the worst this off season because it exposed a loop hole in the FA rules when everybody is supposed to play nice and focus on the big picture of winning back fans."
JP Swenson, my San Francisco tour guide, and webmeister of the long-running Sharkspage.com agrees with me that the Ducks signing Todd Bertuzzi was dumber than Eddie Murphy thinking we want to see him making bad jokes in a fat suit for the third time.
Instead of hanging on to a young, dominant physical power forward and matching Edmonton's offer to Dustin Penner, Burke signs an aging Bertuzzi to a contract that hamstrings the Ducks financially. Bertuzzi has yet to regain his previous form after returning from injury, and there are too many off ice issues that might cause distractions down the line. Burke did not want his players to develop in a "fear free" environment, but now they may have to fear how the loss of a Niedermayer and Selanne will effect the team down the stretch run and in the playoffs.
The Acid Queen loves to hate (the Red Wings) and is predicting woe to those who sign Peter Forsberg and his "glass ankles".
It's going to be whoever signs Peter Forsberg--hopefully that'll be Detroit, so I can laugh at them. The guy has glass ankles, and he's breaking down rapidly. Peter The Great is no longer so. He should just retire from the NHL and head back to Sweden so he can try to win an SEL title with MoDo.
As for myself, I almost agree with my girlfriend, who suggest that "Anyone who doesn't sign Jan Bulis" is the answer to the worst FA signing question, but I'll have to go with Dustin Penner.
As much as I like the big lug, he is nowhere near worth $4mil per season AND all of the draft picks the Oilers gave up to get him. The Flyers will give up just cap space, while the Oilers give up that and some future assets for a 2nd line winger.
PS: HAPPY 20TH BIRTHDAY TO SIDNEY CROSBY!!
One more year and he can legally drink in the US of A.
On a lark, I decided to poll a few of my fellow hockey bloggers with a selected question. This could become a regular feature, since it offers the chance to get a spectrum of views in a nice capsulated format.
The first question: What was the worst free agent signing of the NHL off-season?
The one with the most answers with mighty-mite Daniel Briere, for which the Flyers were panned heavily for giving out such a long-term deal to a shrimp.
Mike Chen:
I'm going with Daniel Briere. Who the hell gets an EIGHT-YEAR term not named Crosby or Ovechkin? (Jes: Rick DiPietro) Couple it with the fact that the Flyers don't play Buffalo's go-go-go system, nor do they have the same offensive depth as the Sabres, and you're looking at a marked point drop and a bad cap hit for years to come. I could be wrong, but I see Briere's skills tapering off around year four of his deal.
Snoopyjode, from The Sidney Crosby Show:
BY FAR, my choice is the Daniel Briere signing. The Flyers basically bet the entire ranch on him. He's a somewhat decent and reliable player, but he's only had one really notable "standout" season in the NHL, so he's not even close to being worth what he got in that deal.
AND, Earl Sleek from the Battle of California:
In my opinion, the worst free agent signing this offseason was Philly's signing of Daniel Briere. I don't watch a ton of eastern conference hockey, but looking at the dollars and years committed, I think he's a guy who's very likely to underperform over the life of the contract.
Ritch Duncan, the American Hockey Fan (yes, the only one), had a very unique choice: Kevin Garnett to the Boston Celtics.
OK, how is a basketball trade the worst move of the hockey off-season? I'll tell ya. If there was one consolation for Bruins fans living in a town dominated by the Sox and Patriots, we could argue that with the Celtics around, the B's weren't the most pathetic team in town. It wouldn't have been a strong argument, but one could make it. Now, thanks to Mr. Garnett ( who has 2 inches on Zdeno Chara, by the way), the Boston Bruins are the least interesting sports draw in New England.
My fellow FanHouse cohort, Greg Wyshynski, wasn't too excited about the Habs paying heavily for a 2nd line defenseman.
Roman Hamrlik, four-year, $22-million deal with Montreal. He nearly had Mark Streit's stats, and now he has Sheldon Souray's money.
Michael the Hockey Fanatic chastised Kevin Lowe for his crazy RFA bids. I have to disagree about the 'playing nice' part, however. Hockey is war, on and off the ice ...
"I think the Vanek/Penner signing was the worst this off season because it exposed a loop hole in the FA rules when everybody is supposed to play nice and focus on the big picture of winning back fans."
JP Swenson, my San Francisco tour guide, and webmeister of the long-running Sharkspage.com agrees with me that the Ducks signing Todd Bertuzzi was dumber than Eddie Murphy thinking we want to see him making bad jokes in a fat suit for the third time.
Instead of hanging on to a young, dominant physical power forward and matching Edmonton's offer to Dustin Penner, Burke signs an aging Bertuzzi to a contract that hamstrings the Ducks financially. Bertuzzi has yet to regain his previous form after returning from injury, and there are too many off ice issues that might cause distractions down the line. Burke did not want his players to develop in a "fear free" environment, but now they may have to fear how the loss of a Niedermayer and Selanne will effect the team down the stretch run and in the playoffs.
The Acid Queen loves to hate (the Red Wings) and is predicting woe to those who sign Peter Forsberg and his "glass ankles".
It's going to be whoever signs Peter Forsberg--hopefully that'll be Detroit, so I can laugh at them. The guy has glass ankles, and he's breaking down rapidly. Peter The Great is no longer so. He should just retire from the NHL and head back to Sweden so he can try to win an SEL title with MoDo.
As for myself, I almost agree with my girlfriend, who suggest that "Anyone who doesn't sign Jan Bulis" is the answer to the worst FA signing question, but I'll have to go with Dustin Penner.
As much as I like the big lug, he is nowhere near worth $4mil per season AND all of the draft picks the Oilers gave up to get him. The Flyers will give up just cap space, while the Oilers give up that and some future assets for a 2nd line winger.
PS: HAPPY 20TH BIRTHDAY TO SIDNEY CROSBY!!
One more year and he can legally drink in the US of A.
Labels: blogger poll, Blogging community, Daniel Briere, dustin penner, forsberg, Free Agent Signings, roman hamrlik
Wednesday, August 01, 2007
Unmasking Eklund, "The Fraud"
by JesI don't really like to spend much of my internet time on The Fraud (aka Eklund) since I have far better things to do, and far better sites to visit. I don't read his crap, I don't visit his website, nor do I want to look at another ugly picture of him.
That said, it is important for all bloggers AND consumers of information (the readers) to understand just what a fraud and detriment that Dwayne Klessel has been to the online hockey community. As long as Eklund is seen as 'The Hockey Blogger' by a majority of the mainstream, the whole community will be looked down upon and bloggers will continue to be stereotyped as the 'geek in his momma's basement.'
With that, I suggest that you go and check out Greg Wyshynski's in-depth post on Eklund and how his shenanigans affect bloggers, readers and journalists. Everything that needs to be said is there, and it's got the whole history for you.
If you want to continue to be deceived and lied to, that is your choice. You also have the choice of knowing the truth, and spending your precious internet hours away from internet fraud.
Labels: Blogging community, Eklund
